The latest version of MySQL Cluster has been released by Oracle with performance enhancements that enable it to deliver a billion queries per minute using only 8 data nodes.

MySQL Cluster 7.2 has been optimised for use in distributed computing environments. The server offers horizontal scaling with auto-sharding (partitioning) of tables across nodes to handle read and write intensive workloads.

You can make use of active/active geographic replication so multiple clusters can be spread across regions to provide disaster recovery. The server also supports on-line addition of nodes and updates to live database schema to minimize downtime. MySQL Cluster 7.2 is available in both open source and commercial editions.

The main feature of the new version, according to MySQL Senior Product Manager Andrew Morgan's MySQL Cluster blog, is its ability to run 1 billion queries per minute using just 8 data nodes. It also offers up to 70 times higher JOIN performance for complex queries.

The server integrates with the latest MySQL 5.5 release, comes with both SQL and NoSQL APIs and has its own MySQL Cluster Manager for the commercial Carrier Grade Edition to automate database management.